Ecology, Landscape, Memory and Love: A Comparative Study of The Poems of Pradip Kumar Patra and Jayanta Kumar Mahapatra

Abstract

ABSTRACT This comparative study explores the poetic worlds of Pradip Kumar Patra and Jayanta Kumar Mahapatra through the interrelated themes of ecology, landscape, memory, and love. The study examines how both poets transform natural surroundings into emotionally resonant spaces that preserve cultural identity, personal history, and human relationships. While Patra’s poetry reveals an intimate engagement with rural ecology and indigenous sensibility, Mahapatra’s poems often portray silence, decay, and existential loneliness through the landscapes of Odisha. Nature in their poetry is not merely decorative; it functions as a living archive of memory and emotional consciousness. Rivers, rain, soil, forests, and village spaces become symbolic mediums through which the poets negotiate displacement, nostalgia, affection, and spiritual yearning. The research further investigates how love emerges within ecological settings as both a personal and collective experience, linking human intimacy with environmental belonging. By employing comparative literary analysis and eco-critical perspectives, the study highlights convergences and divergences in their poetic representations of land and memory. It argues that both poets articulate a profound ecological awareness rooted in regional culture while simultaneously addressing universal human emotions. Their poetry ultimately presents landscape as a dynamic space where memory, identity, and love coexist, offering a powerful critique of modern alienation and environmental loss in contemporary Indian English poetry.

Keywords: Ecology, Landscape, Memory, Love, Eco-criticism, Indian English Poetry, Nature, Identity, Cultural Memory, Comparative Literature